


It's complicated

by ceeayeess



Category: Hit the Floor (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sugar Daddy, Escort Jude, Falling In Love, M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Some canon characters will be making cameos, Sugar Daddy Zero
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-02 21:14:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8683615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceeayeess/pseuds/ceeayeess
Summary: Jude is working as an escort to pay off his debts. Then he is made an offer he can't refuse.





	1. First impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the Sugar Daddy AU that I have been dying to write for the longest time ever. 
> 
> This isn't going to be an easy story to write, though I already know how I want it to end, and even have this Word document with specific scenes noted down, a detailed write-up on how the story will develop and character background. But it's going to be a nice challenge for myself, and hopefully an interesting read for you guys.
> 
> A word of warning here - this story deals with prostitution and (duh) sugar daddy arrangements. It's not a particularly dark story. At least, to me it isn't. _But_ if you feel that this isn't your cup of tea, or that it may make you uncomfortable, please don't read it. :)

Jude gratefully accepted a glass of champagne from a passing waitress. He fought the urge to gulp it down and instead sipped at it delicately. All the better to play up the role of the pretty faced date with impeccable manners and refined breeding.

He had no idea where his client had disappeared to, and he wasn’t too concerned. The portly, sweaty man for some reason could afford to wear a Rolex and hire an escort to attend this fancy charity gala with him and to fuck after, but not a decent mouthwash to get rid of the stink in his breath and on his tongue.

Jude wasn’t going to complain though. Chris – as his client had insisted Jude call him, with a leer that had made Jude’s stomach turn – was paying a huge sum of money for Jude’s presence tonight. Money that would go a long way in paying off the hefty debt he had been saddled with. It was far from an ideal situation to be in but Jude had learnt early on that life wasn’t fair. 

Some people were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, never had to do a hard day’s work in their life, and spent their days attending glitzy events like these, dripping with diamonds, sipping cocktails and making inane small talk.

Some people were raised single-handedly by a mum who clammed up every time Jude dared to ask about his father. Some people lost the only family they ever knew and had to cancer despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on surgery, chemotherapy and other so-called cutting-edge alternative treatments. Some people had to resort to what was essentially high class prostitution to pay off their debts.

It wasn’t easy, and Jude wasn’t proud of the choices he had to make. But Jude was a pragmatic sort of guy, and he wasn’t under any illusions that he could find a job that would pay anywhere as much as escorting did, not fresh out of college and a barista job at Starbucks the only thing of note to write about in his resume.

Jude felt a large, clammy hand worm its way around his waist from behind. He forced a smile onto his face and turned around. “Chris,” he said, trying to sound like he genuinely looked forward to the other man’s reappearance.

“Don’t get too drunk, sweetheart,” Chris was running his hand up and down Jude’s waist with intent. “Wouldn’t want you passing out before we get to the main course tonight.” He winked at Jude.

 “What if I told you I’m better in bed when I’m drunk?” Jude replied. It had taken a while, but he had managed to reach the stage where he didn’t outright blush bright red whenever he made some sort of innuendo. Lionel would have been proud. 

“Mmm, I like that. Little wildcat in the sack, aren’t you?” Chris laughed and squeezed Jude’s waist.

Jude opened his mouth to reply, but several board members of the Devils organization walked by, and Chris’ attention was diverted as he made small talk with them about the organization’s stock performance and upcoming trades for new players.

Any other time, Jude would have been genuinely interested in the conversation, maybe even chipped in with a comment or two of his own. Jude loved basketball. He wasn’t great at the game, but he had been a loyal fan of the Los Angeles Devils since middle school and faithfully caught every match whenever he could.

But Jude knew his place here was just to look pretty, be seen and not be heard, and he dutifully kept his remarks to himself. Nobody wanted to hear what some young punk had to say about how the new players’ performance in the upcoming match would impact the organization’s stock market shares. Not even if said young punk had graduated top of his class in UCLA with double degrees in business and economics.

A few of the Devils players drifted over, and conversation paused as a round of introductions were made. Jude smiled politely at them, mentally cataloguing everyone in his mind. Terrence Wall, one half of a power couple with Devils Girls captain Jelena Howard. Derek Roman, wild child and golden boy of the Devils. Zero, newly acquired forward from Ohio. And, Jude’s traitorous mind added, who looked even more stunning in person than he did in picture or on video.

Butterflies swarmed Jude’s stomach as he took in the sight of Zero in his perfectly tailored suit and tie, and he had to take another sip of his champagne to hide his nerves. Chris introduced Jude as his date for the night, and Jude didn’t miss the lingering sweep of Zero’s eyes along his body before his lips curved up into a little smirk and he gave a little tip of his head in Jude’s direction.

Jude excused himself to head for the toilet. He stood in front of the sink for a moment and stared into the mirror. His reflection stared back – broad-shouldered, dark hair curling over his forehead, pensive hazel eyes that Lionel had once described as _deep shimmering pools you could just get lost in_.

Lionel had also followed up that comment by lewdly squeezing Jude’s chest and solemnly telling Jude that he was lucky to have killer pecs to go with his killer stare. Jude had never quite figured out whether she had been pulling his leg. 

Jude wasn’t ashamed of what he did for a living. He wasn’t going around to announce it to the whole world, that was for sure. But it wasn’t something that he beat himself up over either. He would stay for as long as it took for him earn enough to pay off whatever he had borrowed from the bank, and then he would be gone. And he would be able to put this behind him and go on with his life. That was the plan. It was a solid plan, and he was sticking to it. 

It wasn’t like Jude had anyone who particularly cared what he did with his life anyway. There was his mother – Jude still felt a pang deep in his chest whenever he thought about her – but she was gone. And that was about it. He had no other family to speak of, no friends, nothing. Maybe Lionel? But Lionel was his boss, so that probably put her out of the equation.

That didn’t stop the niggling thoughts in his head, though. He squinted at his reflection. Could anyone _tell_ that he fucked strangers for money just from looking at his face? Jude wasn’t deluded enough to think that majority of the people at the gala thought he was anything else other than someone for hire. It still made him slightly self-conscious, when most people in his shoes would have developed skin thicker than cowhide by now. 

Jude shook himself out of his musings and turned on the tap to wash his hands. A quick check of his watch showed that the event would be ending soon. Chris would be coming to look for him anytime now.

The toilet door swung open, and someone stepped in. From the corner of his eye Jude took in the bleached blond hair that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else and the perfectly pressed suit that hugged the body beneath it in all the right places. 

Zero.

Jude dried off his hands and nodded politely at Zero. He was reaching for the door when Zero’s voice rang out from behind him.

“Great night, huh?”

Taken aback, Jude turned around. There was no one else around, Zero was talking to _him_. He was leaning casually against the sink, his hands holding onto the porcelain counter behind him, obviously waiting for a reply. 

“I, I guess,” Jude said hesitantly.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Zero drawled. “You standing there with Carl, looking like someone just killed your puppy.”

“It’s Chris,” Jude narrowed his eyes. Zero was playing at something, and whatever it was, Jude had a feeling he wouldn’t be liking it.

Zero shrugged. Jude briefly thought about ticking Zero off, act like he was genuinely offended on Chris’ behalf. But on second thought, why even bother? Jude wouldn’t be kidding anyone, certainly not Zero.

“You could do a lot better than him, you know,” Zero said. His tone was casual, as though he was discussing about the weather, or making small talk about the pattern of the floor tiles. 

“Maybe I don’t want to do better than him,” Jude replied. He wondered why he wasn’t putting an end to this conversation now, before Zero goaded him into saying things that weren’t meant to be shared.

Zero’s expression turned thoughtful, and he nodded. “You are right. Hard to do better than Chris if you’re just hanging around for the money.”

Jude drew his breath in sharply. Zero wasn’t far off the mark – quite on the contrary, in fact. It didn’t make the barb sting any less.

“Hard to do better than Chris when most other men seem to have basketballs for brains,” Jude sniped. He pushed the door open and walked out before he could say or do anything he would really regret. There was no point in jeopardizing tonight’s paycheck for something as stupid as this.

And if Jude’s eyes stung a little as he made his way back to the ballroom, he told himself that it was because of his hurt pride. It had nothing to do with the fact that Zero knew what Jude was, and scorned him for it. Not at all.


	2. Two steps forward

Jude opened his wardrobe and looked over the various outfits within it with a critical eye. He eventually picked out a light cream colored suit and a greyish-blue shirt to wear. Chris had booked him for the night, and he was kicking off their evening together with dinner at the La Chateau on Mayfair Street. The last thing Jude needed was to turn up underdressed for a dinner that would easily cost what most people made in a month.

Of course, the money would be small change to Chris, but that was besides the point. 

Jude had deliberately chosen a lighter color to wear. If he had read Chris right, the man had a thing for innocent virginal young things. Jude was hardly a virgin, he didn’t think he counted as particularly young either (although the baby face probably was what had prompted Chris to give him another call), but the innocent part, he could definitely play up.

He didn’t bother with a tie, even left one more button undone on his shirt than he normally would. He was an escort, after all. Didn’t make sense to go overboard with the prim and proper act.

Chris had sent a cab over to pick Jude up, so he arrived at the entrance of the restaurant right on time.

“Reservation under Christopher Miller, please,” Jude said to the staff at the counter.

He was promptly brought to the reserved table in an area at the back of the restaurant, partitioned off to provide esteemed guests an extra modicum of privacy. Chris joined him not long after, and Jude stood up to greet him. Chris plopped one fat, heavy arm low on Jude’s back – a little too low, perhaps – and planted a kiss on Jude’s lips. Jude allowed Chris the kiss, but pulled away when the other man started licking at his lips in the universal sign for _let me in_.

“Excited, are we?” Jude tampered his rejection with an extra note of flirtation in his voice and expression.

Chris ogled Jude’s body openly, his eyes lingering on the exposed strip of skin above Jude’s open collar. “You have no idea. Maybe we should skip dinner and head for the hotel now.” He winked at Jude lasciviously. 

Jude laughed. “Oh no, Mr Miller,” he took his seat at the table and looked up at Chris through his eyelashes. “You can’t expect me to put out tonight without buying me dinner first.”

Chris said something in reply, but Jude didn’t catch it. Because it was at that exact moment that a couple was ushered to the table right behind theirs. The woman was stunning, all dark eyes and bright red lips, a tight little dress accentuating her curves in all the right places.

The man was Zero.

_Figures._

His female companion might have been a looker but it was Zero who stole Jude’s breath away. He was wearing a deep burgundy shirt under his tailored jacket, smirking at whatever the woman was saying. Jude had to look away quickly before he could lose control and do something stupid – like walk over and try to talk to Zero, explain to Zero that no, he wasn’t a gold-digger, he had a _reason_ for doing what he did.

Jude resolutely directed his attention back to chatting with Chris, lightly teasing him about his dinner order and graciously accepting the glass of wine Chris insisted he have. Chris seemed to be feeling extra jolly that night. His voice boomed loudly through the restaurant, and he was full of bawdy remarks and generous with his enormous belly laughs.

Then what Jude had been dreading all night happened. Chris roared with laughter over some random remark Jude had made, spit flying out of his mouth and specking the pristine white table cloth. Zero’s gaze shifted to their table, and Jude spotted the exact moment recognition flickered in his eye as he registered first Jude, then Chris.

Their eyes met, and in that one single moment, everything else melted away. Jude was no longer at the swankiest restaurant on this side of town, buttoned up into a stuffy suit and munching on overpriced eel while entertaining his old sleazy date. It was just him, and Zero, staring at each other from across their respective tables.

Then Zero’s gaze moved away from Jude, shattering that little moment, and Jude was yanked back into reality.

Jude excused himself to the men’s room. Once he was there, he splashed his face with water, grabbed some paper towels and scrubbed his face roughly. He couldn’t believe he had been so unprofessional. Thank God Chris had seemed oblivious to it all.

Jude had to get a grip on himself, fast. He had a job to do, and he had to do it well. So what if Zero had waltzed into the same restaurant? So what if he had a little crush on Zero? So what if he might have fantasized once or twice about having an intimate dinner with Zero, in a setting like this, just the two of them?

Jude was balling the used paper towels to toss into the trash can when the handle of the restroom door turned, the door opened, and Zero stepped in.

“Zero,” Jude said, unable to hide the surprise in his voice, at the very same time Zero said, “Jude.”

Zero shook his head and chuckled. “We seriously need to stop meeting like this.”

Jude laughed nervously as he discarded the towels. “You are the one who keeps following me into public bathrooms,” he replied.

“Hey, you can’t blame a guy for trying,” Zero said easily.

Jude felt a little flutter in his stomach. Was Zero _flirting_ with him? Not that it mattered. Jude had a client waiting for him in the restaurant.

“Well, see you around,” Jude nodded at Zero and moved towards the door. He stopped short when Zero spoke up again.

“Look – about what I said the other night. I didn’t mean it that way,” Zero said.

Jude blinked, taken by surprise. “Oh. Um. It’s okay. I mean, I know what you meant.” He waved a hand around awkwardly. 

Zero looked at him shrewdly. “And you’re not telling me I’m wrong?”

Jude took a deep breath. “I know what you and everyone else at the event probably think about me. If you must know, I don’t actively seek out men old enough to be my father to date, no. You seem like a pretty smart guy, so I’ll just leave you to figure out the rest on your own. Good night, Zero.”

Jude left without waiting to hear Zero’s reply.

-

Jude staunchly focused all his attention on Chris for the rest of the dinner. He refused to look over at Zero’s table. He didn’t want to see Zero flirting with his date. Didn’t want to think about what Zero would be doing with her that night. Didn’t want to lock gazes with Zero again and see that knowing, judgmental look in Zero’s eyes that had been directed his way by more people than he'd like to admit.

There was a limousine waiting for them right outside the restaurant when Chris had finished footing the bill. They slipped in, and the driver took off immediately, clearly already briefed about where their next destination would be.

“You’re a real pretty one, Jude,” Chris said. He was pressed uncomfortably close to Jude so that their thighs were brushing up against each other’s. His breath smelt of wine and steak and there was a bead of sweat gathering just above his upper lip.

“I bet you say that to all the boys,” Jude replied.

A loud grunt was the only reply he got before rough, eager hands were on his shoulders, pushing him off the seat and onto his knees in front of Chris. Jude squeezed the sizable bulge straining in the seat of Chris’ pants, making him curse, then reached out to undo Chris’ belt buckle.

-

It was nearly ten in the morning when Jude got home the next day. His clothes reeked of alcohol and Chris’ expensive cologne, and he wasted no time stripping out of them and tossing them into the laundry. He took a long, hot shower and got into bed for a nap.

Jude woke up a few hours later to the insistent ringing of his phone. He reached out one hand and fumbled around on the bedside table until he found it, then blindly answered the call. 

“Hello?”

Lionel’s voice rang out on the other end of the phone, clipped and urgent. “Jude, it’s me.”

“Lionel?” Jude flopped back onto his pillow with a groan. “I had a client last night. I got home literally two hours ago. You couldn’t have just sent a text?”

“Jude. Kinkade.” The tone of Lionel’s voice made Jude sit up again. It was her “answer-me-wrong-and-I’ll-cut-you” tone. Jude had heard it being used plenty of times before, on pushy clients, escorts who tried to pull a fast one on her, and generally people who were stupid enough to step on her toes. But never on Jude.

“You want to tell me why Zero from the L.A. Devils just marched into my office demanding to meet you personally?”

Jude opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Lionel simply barreled on, obviously not expecting an answer from Jude.

“Never mind. Just come down now, Jude. I told Zero you’ll reach in thirty minutes.” And with that, Lionel hung up, leaving behind the beeping noise that signalled the end of the call. 

What the hell was going on?

-

Jude pulled on jeans and a black Henley, then drove over to the agency. None of the escorts had fixed working hours or worked out of an office cubicle, obviously. But Lionel owned the agency and always seemed to be up in her ears in work of some kind, and she had told Jude that she liked the idea of having an office to work out of.

Some clients seemed to like having a brick-and-mortar place they could go to too, despite the general preference for customers to keep everything hush-hush and on the low-down. Apparently it made them feel more secure somehow, persuaded them that Lionel wasn’t going to run off with their money and that the agency wasn’t some fly-by-night set-up.

“Good, you are here!” Lionel intercepted Jude at the entrance leading into the reception area. She grabbed Jude by the arms and pushed him towards the couch which Zero was lounging on, legs spread and arm slung casually along the back of the couch as though he owned the place.

“I’ll just leave you two to it, yeah? I’ll catch up with you later, Jude,” Lionel winked at Jude and began to make her way back to the office.

“Excuse me,” Jude smiled tightly at Zero, then jogged off to catch up with Lionel, catching the door before she could shut it on him and squeezing his way into the office with her.

“Lionel, what is this about?” he hissed. “This isn’t how we do things here.”

“And you think I don’t know that?” Lionel glared at Jude. “That guy” – she gestured in the general direction of Zero – “marched in an hour ago saying he wanted to meet you. I told him you aren’t available, and that we don’t exactly do walk-ins around here. Even offered to get him someone else if he really needs a fuck this bad.” 

Jude couldn’t hold back a snort at the way Lionel gestured lewdly to her lower half when she said _needs a fuck_. Lionel planted her hands on her hips and stared at Jude evenly. Jude coughed and raised both hands in a placating gesture. “Okay, my bad. Please continue.”

Suitably mollified, Lionel continued. “Anyway, he was adamant that he only wants you. Sat down on that couch and refused to budge. Do you know what this means?”

Jude’s head was spinning. “Okay. Let me get this straight. Zero said he wants me. As in, wants me?”

Lionel threw her hands in the air. “Wants to see you. Wants to screw you. Who the hell knows? Look, I don’t have time for this. That guy’s rich. If he’s willing to pay, I’m willing to entertain him. Go out there and find out what he wants. Remind him the charges start once he sticks his hands in your pants. Or your hands in his." And with that parting shot delivered, Lionel shooed him out of the office and slammed the door shut.

Jude swallowed hard and made his way back to the reception area. Zero was still there, lazing on the couch like some supermodel. He raised his eyebrows at Jude.

Jude shoved his hands into his pockets and sat down stiffly next to Zero, making sure to keep a decent distance between their bodies. When it seemed that Zero wasn’t going to start the ball rolling and initiate conversation anytime soon, Jude finally broke the silence.

“How did you find this place?”

Zero shrugged. “What can I say? Chris Miller isn’t the most discreet guy around, and I have my ways.”

Which wasn’t exactly the answer Jude had been looking for. If anything, it raised _more_ questions in Jude's head, which was probably Zero's intention in the first place. But Jude had more pressing matters at hand, so he let that slide.

“And you are here because…?”

Zero grinned and sat up straight. He put his elbows on his knees and turned his head to look directly at Jude for the first time since their conversation started. “Now you’re talking, Jude Kinkade. I’ve got a proposal for you. Interested to find out more?”


	3. A deal is made

Jude peered at Zero uncertainly. Of all the things he had been expecting Zero to say, this hadn’t been it.

“A proposal,” he repeated hesitantly.

Zero nodded. Jude wasn’t sure how a nod could appear smug, but Zero managed it.

“Okay, spill,” Jude mimicked Zero’s pose, leaning his arms on his knees and leaning forward in a way he hoped made him look confident and in control – things he was feeling the very opposite of right now.

“I’ll help you with your money problem,” Zero said easily. “In return for something, of course.”

Jude had always thought that the phrase _heat rushed to his face_ was more metaphorical than anything else, until that very moment. He literally felt the warmth spreading through his cheeks as his face no doubt reddened damningly. “You – you…” he stammered, momentarily at a loss for words.

Zero, for his part, looked perfectly at ease, as if he hadn’t just propositioned a man he had met barely a week ago. He clasped his hands together and simply looked at Jude. Somehow that patient, even gaze unnerved Jude more than any of Chris’ – or his other clients’ – unabashed ogling and suggestive grins ever had.

Jude found his tongue. “Is that a polite way of saying you want to hire me for my services?” He was slightly proud of the way he managed to say that whole sentence without stumbling on the last word.

Zero didn’t so much as twitch a muscle. “Yes.”

Every fiber of Jude’s being was screaming at him to just go ahead and say yes to whatever Zero had to offer. But the logical part of his brain was sending out warning messages that were getting increasingly harder to ignore.

“Why?”

Zero raised an eyebrow. “You sure are asking a lot of questions for someone who just literally got handed an out on a platter.”

“Not exactly,” Jude folded his arms in front of his chest and stared at Zero pointedly. “For one, you still haven’t answered my question. For another, you are hardly doing this out of the kindness of your heart. You want something in return. And lastly – I have regulars. Many regulars, as a matter of fact. They pay me well and I know what I am getting into with them. What makes you think I want to accept whatever you are offering?” 

“On the contrary, I think you would be very happy to accept my offer,” Zero’s voice gave away nothing, but the look in his eyes was razor sharp, as though he could see right through Jude’s protestations and into his head. “You see, I do believe you when you said that you don’t have a fetish for men twice your age. Which kind of leads us to only one possible reason you would be with someone like Colin.”

“Chris,” Jude said automatically.

“Chris,” Zero echoed obligingly. “So tell me now, Jude. Do you enjoy dating Chris? Kissing him? Touching him? Letting him –”

“Stop. Stop now.” Jude put out a hand, as though that physical gesture could somehow stop the barrage of mental images Zero’s words had sent rushing through his head. “Please.”

Zero shrugged. “As I said. You clearly need money, which I have.” He ran an appraising eye over Jude, making Jude flush again. “We could work something out together.” 

Jude stood his ground. “Which brings us back to my first question. Why?” 

“It isn’t anything deep, Jude. I’m a public figure. The damn paps are on my ass everywhere I do. But I also have my needs. I like to have fun, have a good time. It’s not a good time when I have to worry about whichever girl I’ve picked up blabbering to the press about everything from the thread count of my bedsheets to the size of my dick the morning after. This would be a win-win situation for both of us. You get money to do whatever it is you need to do. I get to have my fun.” At this, Zero let his eyes blatantly sweep over the length of Jude’s body once more. “You might even have some fun too. Who knows?”

Jude refused to let his mind go running into _that_ direction – of just how much fun he could have with Zero. “But why me? There are plenty of escorts available. It sounds like you went through a lot of trouble just to find me.”

“Maybe I like a challenge,” Zero leered at Jude.

Jude didn’t reply, simply arched an eyebrow at Zero until Zero sighed and dropped his flirtatious facade. “I can tell when someone is smart enough to know when to say the right things. And from what I’ve seen so far, I can trust you. Why would I want to drop all this money on some bimbo I’ve never met before, when I don’t even know if I can rely on her to keep her mouth shut?”

Jude had been expecting that from Zero, but he hadn’t been prepared for the disappointment that washed over him. _Stupid_ , he told himself fiercely. What had he been expecting? For Zero to come professing his deep undying love for Jude and his plans to sweep Jude into his arms and out of a life of depravity?

“You are right,” Jude said at last. “Your secret is safe with me. But you could’ve just went to Lionel and got her to arrange everything. You didn’t have to personally come here and wait for me to have this little heart-to-heart talk.”

“That’s true,” Zero nodded. “Which was what I was going to get to, actually.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Zero leaned forward. “I want exclusive rights to you. Meaning, you don’t take business from anyone else. You are there whenever and wherever I need you. Period.”

Jude let out a breath. “Wow. That’s…I don’t even know if that’s possible.”

Zero rolled his eyes. “Which is why I’m talking to you now, stupid. This basically means you stop working for the agency, stop working for Lionel. No more going out with different clients and getting a commission cut for every booking. I’ll pay off your debt for you upfront on the condition that you work for me. And only me.”

Jude’s head was spinning. He wasn’t sure if his ears were screwed up and hearing wrongly, or if something in his head had finally cracked, making him hear things. But Zero was there, next to him on the overstuffed red couch, chin resting on his hands and foot tapping on the floor, clearly waiting for a response from Jude.

Jude struggled to collect his thoughts. “I can’t give you an answer now,” he finally said. “I need to talk to Lionel. Give this more thought.”

If Zero was surprised that Jude wasn’t swooning at his feet right then and there, he didn’t show it. He simply nodded. “Fair enough. Give me your phone.”

Jude passed over his phone and watched as Zero tapped his number into it, then pressed call. He let it ring for two counts, then ended the call and tossed the phone back to Jude. “Call me back, Jude. I’ll be waiting.”

Zero patted Jude on the back, got to his feet and strutted off. Jude watched as Zero moved further away, until he was out of Jude’s line of vision. He turned his gaze to his phone. Which had Zero’s number in it. That Zero had typed out.

Jude leaned back against the couch and pressed his hand on his forehead. He had no idea how someone could offer to help him, yet leave him feeling more lost and flustered than he had _before_.

He rose to his feet and made his way to Lionel’s office. Jude knocked on the door and stepped into the office without waiting for a response from Lionel.

Lionel looked up at Jude questioningly from where she was perusing documents at her desk. Jude sat down on the opposite side of Lionel’s table. “We need to talk,” he said. 

-

After Jude finished relegating the entire conversation with Zero to Lionel, Lionel squealed and grabbed hold of Jude’s hand.

“No way! Jude, that’s great!” 

Jude was scandalized. “Lionel!”

“Okay, I’m calm, I’m calm,” Lionel looked at Jude intently. “But I meant what I said, Jude. You get to pay off all your debts. Just like that. There’s no catch to this deal as far as I can see. What’s wrong?”

Jude looked away. “Nothing’s wrong. It’s just that things like these don’t happen to me.” He laughed self-deprecatingly.

Lionel frowned. “Things like what? A guy wanting to pay you money to have sex with you?”

“No. I meant, like, good things. Good things don’t happen to me, Lionel. It’s not normal.”

“Oh, Jude,” Jude didn’t have to look at Lionel to feel the sympathy coming off her in waves. “That’s not true. Sure, life’s been harsh to you so far. But you have to believe that it will get better one day. And it will, Jude.”

Jude just shrugged non-committedly, refusing to look at Lionel in the eyes.

Lionel gave Jude’s hand a little squeeze. “This could be the turning point in your life, who knows? Why don’t you go talk to Zero, find out what exactly are the conditions of his loan? Whatever it is, it has to beat rotting around here for a few more years until you earn enough to pay back the bank.” 

Jude finally looked up to meet Lionel’s gaze. He saw nothing in there but sincerity, but there was still one last thing he had to get off his chest.

“But if I accept Zero’s proposal, what about our arrangement?”

“It’s void,” Lionel’s voice was firm and booked no argument. “You aren’t just my employee. You are my friend. I could never in good conscience force you to stay on if you can find a better way out of your problems.”

“Thank you, Lionel,” Jude said, meaning every word with all of his heart. And if his voice sounded suspiciously thick, neither he nor Lionel mentioned anything about it. 

-

Jude called up Zero that very afternoon. The phone rang for so long that he was about to hang up when Zero finally picked up.

“Hey, what’s up?” Zero’s voice sounded out of breath, as though he had ran all the way to answer the phone. Or like he’d just been involved in some vigorous bedroom activities right before the call came in, a traitorous little voice in the back of Jude’s head suggested.

Jude resolutely shut that little voice down before he could be distracted by the thoughts of Zero getting busy between the sheets and embarrass himself thoroughly in front of the guy. “It’s Jude Kinkade,” he said. “Is this a good time to talk?”

“Jude,” Zero sounded pleased. “For you, sure.”

Jude reminded himself that this was how Zero worked. Flirting with any and every sentient being, turning on the charm, making other people feel good about themselves. It didn’t stop his heart from skipping a beat at hearing the happy, warm tone of Zero’s voice.

“It’s, uh, about your proposal. The one we talked about this morning. Can we discuss more about it? Over dinner tonight?” 

Zero’s voice turned sly. “Are you asking me out on a date, Jude?”

Jude floundered. “Uh. Yes? If you want? And if you are free, of course.”

Zero chuckled, but to Jude’s relief, he didn't tease Jude about it. “I’ll see you at The Platypus at eight. Do you know where that is? Do you want me to pick you up?”

“Yes to the first question. No to the second,” Jude said, relieved that Zero had actually given him the choice to decide if he wanted a lift or not.

“Cool. See you later, Jude.”

“See you.”

-

Jude had heard about The Platypus before, though he’d never been there. It seemed to be one of those restaurants that opened quietly, without any fanfare, then slowly and gradually slipped off everyone’s radar while bigger restaurants with more cash to blow on marketing stayed on the forefront of customers’ consciousness.

The Platypus was surprisingly empty at this time of the night, with only a few tables near the entrance occupied. But the small size of the restaurant and the limited seating kept it from looking overly unoccupied. None of the table cloths matched and the art pieces lining the grey concrete walls could perhaps best be described as kooky.

It made Jude grin. Truth be told, this was the last place he’d have expected Zero to bring him to, especially since the restaurant he had bumped into Zero at last night had been the very opposite of this place in just about every aspect. But in retrospect, he could understand why Zero would have chosen to meet here. It was quiet, it was private, it wasn’t overly intimidating the way the La Chateau or another diner of its equivalent would be.

Jude stopped in the middle of the restaurant, suddenly feeling awkward. The waiters and waitresses milling around the place had barely given him a second glance as he’d walked in. They probably hadn’t been too concerned about whether he had a reservation or was simply a walk-in customer, seeing how empty the place was. But that opened up a whole new can of worms for Jude, who wasn’t quite sure what to do now. Was he supposed to just sit somewhere and wait for Zero to show up? Did Zero have a particular preference about which area of the restaurant to sit at? Or should Jude just wait outside for Zero?

His phone, tucked away in the back pocket of his jeans, buzzed, and Jude pulled it out. He had a new message from Zero.

_Look to your left._

Jude looked. Zero waved at him from where he was seated at a cozy little booth at the far corner.

“Um, sorry about that,” Jude said as he sat down opposite Zero. “Did you wait long?”

Zero waved a hand dismissively. “Only just got here five minutes ago. Let’s order something first. I’m starving. Pete fucking killed us during practice today." 

They both ordered burgers, Jude getting a root beer float to go with his and Zero ordering a Coke. The food was served quickly enough, and they both began digging into their respective dinners.

The food was good, really good. Jude usually didn’t feel the need to make pointless point talk when he was eating. But this wasn’t any other date. It was a date set up specifically so he and Zero could discuss the specifics of their…arrangement. Jude was torn between striking up conversation about something silly and meaningless, just to break the ice, and simply barging headlong into the topic at hand.

Zero was washing down the last bite of his burger with some Coke when Jude noticed mayonnaise stains on the corner of his mouth that Zero must have missed when wiping with the napkins.

“You have something there,” Jude said helpfully, indicating to the corner of his own mouth.

Zero grabbed the used napkin from his tray and rubbed at the general vicinity that Jude had indicated to, succeeding only in smearing the sauce around further.

“No, no,” Jude said. He grabbed the napkin from Zero’s hand and reached out, carefully dabbing away the offending stain from Zero’s lips.

Then the reality of what he had just done registered in his brain, and Jude froze in place, his hand still awkwardly dangling in front of Zero’s face. He could feel the warmth of the small puffs of Zero’s breath against his skin. He was close, so close to Zero, he could just reach out and trace that sinfully plump lower lip with his fingers…

Jude abruptly wrenched his hand away from Zero’s lips. Flustered, he grabbed his root beer float and stirred it with his straw, never mind the fact that the ice cream would have melted into the root beer by now. He just needed something to occupy his hands before they could move back to caress the pillowy softness of Zero’s lips of their own accord. 

Zero, for his part, seemed happily oblivious about the effect that little incident was having on Jude. “Well, thanks,” he drawled. “I haven’t actually started paying you yet, but it’s nice to see you so eager about taking the initiative.”

Jude scowled and took a sip of his root beer float to cover up just how mortified he was feeling, not bothering to dignify Zero’s obvious teasing with an answer.

Zero pushed their trays out of the way so that there wasn’t anything barricading their view of each other. “I assume you have an answer for me by now,” he said casually, and Jude knew that Zero wasn’t referring to his jibe about Jude _taking the initiative_.

He took a deep breath to steel his nerves. “Yes,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I mean, yes as in yes, I have an answer for you. Also yes, I agree to your proposal.”

“Great,” Zero sat up straight. “How much do you need?”

Jude stared. “How much do I…?”

“The amount of money you need. How much is it?”

“Two hundred thousand,” Jude said softly.

Zero let out a low whistle. “Wow.”

“I wouldn’t have ended up in this situation in the first place if I was just a couple of grand in debt,” Jude said defensively.

“Of course not,” Zero was looking at Jude with an unreadable expression. “Don’t worry, I promised you I would give you the money and I will. It’ll be wired to your bank account by tonight.”

Jude let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. “Thank you,” he said sincerely.

Zero hummed. “Don’t be so quick to thank me. You don’t even know what I want from you yet.” The side of his lip lifted up into a little smirk.

“You kept up your side of the bargain. And I’ll keep mine,” Jude said determinedly. “Nothing you do is going to scare me off or make me back out.”

Zero was still looking at Jude, but something in his gaze had shifted. Jude couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly, but it did funny things to his insides. “Don’t worry, you’ll find that I love pretty much everything about sex, except sex that is non-consensual. But I need to make some things clear before we start this deal between us, whatever you want to call it.”

“Name it.”

Zero held up a finger. “One. I’m a hot-blooded man. I have my needs. I’m not gonna lie, you will find yourself being called up to come over quite frequently, and usually without much notice. So you need to be prepared for that.”

“Sure.” Jude nodded. He hadn’t expected anything less. It had been pretty much the same arrangement with all his clients.

“Two. I meant what I said about the exclusive thing. I don’t want you sleeping with anyone else.”

“Fine.” Jude hadn’t been intending to, anyway. He had never been the promiscuous sort, not until he became embroiled in this whole escort business. And he was more than happy to leave that life behind – kind of, anyway – now that his debts had been taken care of.

He briefly wondered if that condition applied to Zero himself. But he held his tongue. It wasn’t his business, as long as Zero practiced safe sex with whichever guy or girl he chose to hook up with. He tried to ignore the pang in his chest at the thought of Zero with someone else.

“Just one last thing. I know what I just did essentially put you out of a job. And I don’t know if you plan to find another one, something in a different line, of course.” Jude couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that, but Zero continued talking, apparently having decided to ignore it. “But anyway, I will give you an allowance of five thousand a month. You can choose to work, or you can choose to live on the allowance. You’ll probably be run down pretty quick if you decide to work a full-time job while still having to cater to my every whim and fancy, but I’ll leave the choice to you.”

Now that was unexpected. To be honest, Jude hadn’t even put any thought into how he would be supporting himself and living his life now that he was abruptly debt-free and would no longer be working for Lionel. But Zero had thought about it all, made sure that all of Jude’s bases would be covered.

It was strangely touching. And Jude knew just how messed up he was to consider an arrangement like theirs touching.

There was just one thing left to clarify, though.

“How long is this going to last?” Jude asked, gesturing between the two of them.

Zero cocked his head to one side, as though he was considering it. Jude clasped his hands together beneath the table and tried very hard to look like he didn’t care what Zero’s answer would be.

Zero drummed his fingers on the table. “Let’s not put a fixed duration to it,” he said at last. “I’ll let you know in advance if for whatever reason I decide to end our arrangement, and you can go ahead and start looking for a job or planning your finances for the future or whatever. But it will only end when I say it does. Are you cool with that?” 

Jude stared. “Which means, if I meet someone and...” 

Zero shrugged. “Well, yeah. I’m a bastard that way. Sure you want to stick around?”

Jude narrowed his eyes. “I _could_ hook up with someone behind your back, you know.”

“Let’s just say that I’m taking a calculated risk here.” Zero sucked up the last of his Coke through his straw, making an obnoxious slurping noise. “I like to think of myself as a pretty good judge of character. And if I read you right, Jude, I don’t think you’re the kind to do that. Or I could be wrong, and we can end things right now. Just say the word.” 

Zero looked at Jude expectantly, and Jude shook his head with a sigh. Because, Zero was right, damn him. Not just that, but Jude couldn’t imagine even going out and trying to develop some semblance of a normal, healthy, balanced relationship with someone else after everything he had done. And definitely not while he was essentially a kept man for Zero. Jude was screwed up but not that screwed up.

“Nope, nothing to say,” Jude looked at Zero directly in the eyes. “We have a deal.” 

Zero grinned. “Deal.”


	4. In too deep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's a while since I posted, guys. Thanks for waiting so patiently!

Jude hadn’t known what to expect after their first dinner together. When he had returned home that night, he had received a text message from his bank alerting him about a recent transaction in his account. He had logged into his bank account online and gaped at the figure that had stared back at him from his computer screen. He had discussed about this with Zero not an hour ago, knew that Zero had promised him this, but it was still a lot to register. He didn’t think he had ever seen so much money in his entire life.

The message from Zero had come in later that night.

_Dinner tmrw. You like sushi?_

And just like that, Jude’s life as he knew it was turned on top of its head. That huge, insurmountable sum he owned the bank, that had always loomed over him like a particularly persistent dark cloud or foul stench, was gone, just like that.

Jude hadn’t known what to feel when he had finally finished paying off everything to the bank. It had been something that had plagued him for so long. More than a few nights had been spent with Jude just lying in bed staring into the darkness, his head racing as he tried to figure out how many more jobs he had to take, how many more clients he had to sleep with, to even begin making a dent on the debt. 

And that was just the principle. Just thinking about how the interest was accumulating with each day the amount went unpaid was enough to make Jude break out into a cold sweat.

Then Zero had happened.

Jude didn’t know if Zero actually comprehended the enormity of the favor he had done for Jude. After all, what was two hundred grand when you were signed on to one of the NBA’s top teams to the tune of thirty million a year?

But it didn’t make Jude any less grateful to Zero for what he had done. And he was determined to show Zero just how grateful, dignity and Jude’s own ridiculous self-consciousness be damned. 

Jude usually preferred to play coy with his clients. Apparently the combination of his “big buff body” and “shy little boy act” was something of a turn on – in Lionel’s words, not his. And Jude, being no Casanova, was more than happy to let that do his seduction for him. But that first night out with Zero, after they had made their arrangement official, Jude had taken a huge step away from his usual operandi modus.

He tried to be subtle at first, letting his fingers brush up against Zero’s when they both reached out for the soy sauce jar at the same time. Smiling sweetly at Zero and reaching out to glide his fingers flirtatiously against Zero’s arm as Zero gave him a play-by-play of that afternoon’s practice session.

Before Jude knew it, they had both consumed copious amounts of sushi and green tea, and it looked like dinner was coming to an end. And Zero had frustratingly _still_ not mentioned anything about what he had planned for them post dinner, or even seemed to pick up on Jude’s attempts at flirtation. It was probably time to be a little more blatant.

Jude wasn’t quite sure how to make eating sushi seductive, but he did his best. He picked up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks. He brought it to his lips and stuck his tongue out coquettishly to lap at the sushi, then suckled at the top of the little mound of rice. Finally, he devoured it, then lifted his eyes to stare at Zero to see if his little display had elicited the reaction he had hoped for. 

His heart skipped a beat when he saw Zero’s eyes trained on his lips. Zero wasn’t the first man he had seen do that to him before, but he was most definitely the only guy who had Jude’s pulse quickening with nothing but one heated gaze.

Jude swallowed, then licked his lips self-consciously when he realized that Zero still hadn’t torn his gaze away from his mouth. He gulped when Zero’s eyes darkened. An amused smirk tugged at the corners of Zero’s lips – that clearly hadn’t went unnoticed by Zero. 

“You are blushing,” Zero said, sounding absurdly pleased with himself.

“I’m not,” Jude shot back in reflex. He felt the back of his neck heat up, and okay, there was no way Zero wouldn’t be able to tell that was a lie.

Zero just grinned and helped himself to more sushi. Jude couldn’t decide whether to be happy that Zero had decided to let the topic go, or disappointed that he hadn’t pursued that line of conversation, just to see where it would lead them to.

When dinner ended and Zero had footed the bill, they headed out of the restaurant together. For a moment, they just stood at the entrance of the carpark, staring at each other. Jude didn’t miss how Zero’s gaze fell onto his lips and it made him tingle all over in anticipation.

For a moment it looked like nothing was going to happen, but then Zero stepped closer, bringing his face nearer to Jude’s so that Jude could see every little detail of Zero’s face up close. His breath caught – Zero's lashes were so long, and his mouth was something to die for. Jude shivered a little, patiently waiting for the warm press of Zero’s lips against his own. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Zero said lowly. Then he was…moving away?

Jude blinked to make sure he wasn’t just imagining things. But there was Zero, walking off in the other direction. He turned around to give Jude a jaunty little wave, then continued on his way.

Jude scrubbed a hand over his face. _What the hell just happened?_

-

Jude was on tenterhooks the entire drive home. The scene from dinner replayed in his mind over and over again. Had he done something wrong? But Zero had been perfectly blunt about what he wanted from Jude the night before. And Jude had just been giving him what he asked for, wasn’t he?

His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he thought about what kind of impression he must have made on Zero. Maybe he had miscalculated. Maybe Zero had changed his mind about wanting Jude and was discreetly telling Jude to back off. The fact that he hadn’t been rushing to get Jude to a hotel room and into bed right after dinner should have been a big enough clue. 

But Zero _had_ paid Jude a lot of money and it didn’t make sense for him to regret a decision like that this quick. Right?

A hundred and one thoughts were still whirring around in Jude’s head by the time he got home. He showered, bundled himself up in a thick sweatshirt and pajama pants, and padded to the kitchen. A mug of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and whipped cream had always been the perfect (if temporary) solution to anything that was bugging him. And the situation with Zero was bugging him, a lot, right now.

Jude had taken the mug of milk out of the microwave and was breaking pieces of semisweet chocolate into it when his phone beeped. He stuck a spoon into the mug, sat down at the kitchen island and grabbed his phone to check for messages. 

 _Hey, I’m busy with some Devils event tmrw. But I’ve got a day off after. Meet up then?_  

Jude spent a few seconds just clutching the phone to his chest and smiling to himself, until he realized that he still hadn’t replied Zero.

-

Nothing happened during their second date. Or their third. Or any of the dates that ensued in the following week. 

Jude had long since given up on trying to seduce Zero. Outright coming onto another guy was not Jude’s style to begin with, and anyway it apparently wasn’t what Zero wanted from Jude, so Jude figured he would just play along and see what Zero would do.

Besides, it was hardly a hardship spending time with Zero like this. Meeting up for dinner, chatting about anything and everything under the sun, discovering things about Zero that he would never have expected (“You don’t like ham?” Jude had asked, flabbergasted, as he watched Zero painstakingly pick out the pieces of ham from his slice of pizza. “I don’t like ham on _pizza_ ,” Zero had replied without missing a beat.) and vice versa. 

Every date ended pretty much the same way, with them leaving in their respective cars, to their respective homes. At least, Jude headed home. He didn’t know about Zero.

It was irrational, Jude knew. It was stupid. Jude was hardly in a position to be expecting monogamy from Zero. The arrangement they had was the furthest thing from a relationship. It was a transaction that was borne out of convenience and nothing more. 

Anyway, it wasn’t like Jude had anything to lose. If anything, he was benefiting from this arrangement. He was literally pocketing a few grand a month to do nothing except hang out with Zero. It was a far cry from a week ago when every night out ended with him on his back with his legs spread, with the client of the night panting away above him.

That was what Jude told himself each night, after parting ways with Zero. It didn’t make him feel any better, imagining Zero heading off for some club where gorgeous strangers would happily drape themselves all over him. Maybe bringing some gorgeous girl or guy home to spend the night with. Zero had explicitly said that he wanted this arrangement precisely because he didn’t want the risk his next hook up having a serious case of loose lips, but Jude was having a problem figuring out why Zero was taking so long to get down to action, so to speak.

He wondered if he should talk to Lionel to get her opinion on the matter. It wasn’t like he actually had anyone else to confide in, and Lionel had seen and experienced enough to be able to give him some decent advice. But she was also sure to also tease him mercilessly and Jude wasn’t confident that he could emerge from the talk with his dignity intact.

Then again, his only alternative was to actually ask Zero about it outright, and if there was a conversation Jude was looking forward to even less than aforementioned talk with Lionel, that had to be it. 

Lionel it would be then. Now, if only Jude could actually work up the nerve to breach the subject with her. 

-

“So that’s it?” Jude asked as he signed his name on the bottom of the form. He pushed both the pen and the piece of paper across the table to Lionel.

“That’s it,” Lionel confirmed. She traced Jude’s signature with the tip of one crimson fingernail. “You’re a free man. Or as free as you can be as Zero’s kept man.” She punctuated her words with a wink at Jude. 

Jude refused to raise to the bait. “I don’t even know how there can be so much paperwork to do just because an escort wants to resign. This is hardly the FBI.” 

Lionel shrugged. “Oh, you never know. This line we are in deals with plenty of sensitive business. You never know who could come looking for trouble. Angry spouses, detectives, lawyers…” she paused for a second and looked at Jude meaningfully before continuing, “even jilted clients.” 

“Oh,” Jude suddenly felt apologetic, even though he knew he had no reason to be. “Did any of my clients give you trouble?”

“Ex-clients,” Lionel corrected breezily. “And it’s nothing I can’t handle. As I said, they are ex-clients, which means they are none of your business now.”

Jude hid a smile. It was just like Lionel, hiding care and love with a mask of aloofness and harsh words.

“Anyway,” Lionel went on. “It’s always important to cover your ass in case anything happens. I’m pretty sure Zero also made you sign a contract before you guys started your arrangement.” 

“Um. No?” Jude ventured. Which was true. All they had was that verbal discussion over dinner. Zero had laid out his terms and conditions explicitly, and Jude had no intention of backing out of their agreement, contract or no contract.

Lionel raised an eyebrow. “Really.”

“Really,” Jude shifted in his seat, starting to feel discomfited by that piercing stare.

"Hmmm,” Lionel leaned back in her chair. “That is pretty strange. Usually clients want the terms of their arrangement to be stated out in black and white. Makes it easier for everyone to know just what they are getting into.” 

Jude shrugged. “I don’t know. We chatted a bit, he told me what he wanted, I told him what I wanted, we made a mutual agreement. Then he transferred me the money, and –”

“Hold on,” There was a gleam in Lionel’s eye that was making Jude very uncomfortable. “That reminds me. You never told me what kind of agreement Zero wanted with you exactly.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Jude insisted. “Zero paid off my debts, and in exchange I spend time with him.” 

Lionel just folded her arms and stared expectantly at Jude. After a few beats, Jude caved.

“He might also be giving me an allowance every month,” Jude muttered.

Lionel’s eyes rounded and she clapped her hands over her mouth. Jude watched sullenly as she squealed and spun around on her chair, apparently unable to find any other way to express her glee. 

Finally, Lionel appeared to compose herself enough to speak. “You little minx,” she said, her voice filled with awe. “You actually found yourself a sugar daddy!”

Jude’s cheeks flamed bright red. “He is not my sugar daddy,” he said vehemently.

Lionel rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. You said it yourself. He is giving you an allowance to be his boy toy. He is your sugar daddy. You are his sugar baby.”

“I am not anyone’s sugar baby,” Jude insisted. 

“Seriously, I don’t know what you are so offended about,” Lionel gave Jude an unimpressed look. “Most of my escorts would give an arm and a leg to snag their own sugar daddy.” 

“Look, it isn’t – we haven’t –” Jude broke off and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “We haven’t even had sex yet, okay?” 

Lionel’s gaze turned considering. “That is unexpected,” she conceded. “But just to clarify – sex is part of the deal, right?”

“Yes,” Jude said. 

“What usually happens on these dates of yours?” Lionel asked.

“We will meet for dinner at whatever venue he has chosen. Then we order our food, talk, eat our food, and say goodbye,” Jude said. 

“And do you or do you not want to have sex with him?” Lionel asked slyly.

Jude didn’t think his face could have gotten any redder, but apparently he had thought wrong. “I guess I wouldn’t mind,” he mumbled.

“Oh, Jude,” Lionel was now looking at Jude as though he was a very small, very fluffy baby animal. “This might sound like I’m just stating the obvious, but have you tried talking to Zero about it?”

Jude sighed. “No. Maybe I will do it tonight,” he said.

“You do that, and remember to fill me in on the details,” Lionel leered at Jude.

“I don’t remember you being this much of a busybody when I was with my previous clients,” Jude said.

Lionel waved a hand in the air flippantly. “You can keep those details to yourself. It’s gross enough watching them salivate after you. The last thing I want is to imagine any of them actually doing the deed.”

Jude frowned. “Hey, I was the one who actually had sex with them. You remember Alan, that bald guy with the gold tooth? You should have seen him when he –” 

Lionel clamped her hands over her ears. “Okay, you can stop now. You are a saint for letting that guy take you to bed and every cent you earned for that is well-deserved. Happy?” 

“I guess I’ll be happier when I finally figure out what Zero is up to. But this will do for now.” Jude replied. 

Lionel reached out and took Jude’s hand in hers. “Don’t overthink it. Just because Zero is paying you for your time doesn’t mean every date with him has to end with sex. Who knows, this may be just what Zero is in it for. Good company with a smart, sexy man.” She squeezed Jude’s hand reassuringly. 

Jude smiled. “Yes, Madame.”

-

Jude didn’t know if Lionel had somehow figured out what time his dinner with Zero was, or if it was just pure coincidence. But her message came in just as Zero and him finished giving their dinner orders to the waitress.

_Go with the flow, have fun. Don’t do anything just because you feel you owe it to him._

Jude’s expression must have given something away, because Zero was looking at him questioningly. 

“It’s just Lionel,” Jude hurried to reassure Zero as he tucked his phone away.

Zero squinted. “Lionel, as in the woman you worked for at the agency?" 

“That’s her.” 

“Wow,” Zero looked like he couldn’t decide whether to be impressed or surprised. “The two of you must be pretty close to stay in contact even after you left.”

“We are,” Jude smiled. “Lionel and I, we go way back.” 

“Oh?” Zero leaned forward. “Something tells me this is a story I don’t want to miss.” 

“We met a year ago at a bar. Some asshole tried to get handsy with her, wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I stepped in and got rid of the guy.”

Zero grinned. “Sounds like one of those meet-cutes you might see on TV.”

Jude laughed. “I know, right? But it’s not like that between us. I mean, we hit it off at once, but it was friendship, nothing more. She was the one who got me into the agency when she knew about the debts. And she’s always been incredibly supportive about everything. I don’t know what I would do without her.”

Zero shook his head. “I’m sure you would do just fine on your own, Jude,” he said. “You are a smart guy. You would have found a way to solve everything regardless.” 

“I don’t know, maybe I would,” Jude broke off mid-sentence as a waitress came by to pass them their drinks. He took a sip of his strawberry milkshake before continuing. “But it’s just nice to know there’s a friend looking out for you, you know?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Zero shrugged. “Never needed a friend my entire life.”

“Never?” Jude repeated.

“Hey, you don’t get to the top by making friends,” Zero smirked.

Jude blinked, slightly hurt by Zero’s dismissive tone. “Good to know you don’t consider me a friend,” he retorted.

Zero reeled back, as if he had only just realized what he had said. “That wasn’t what I meant,” he said.

“Forget it,” Jude stared down resolutely at his milkshake, already regretting his little outburst.

Zero clicked his tongue in exasperation. “You are being childish.”

“You are right,” Jude gazed at Zero evenly. “I’m being childish, and I’m sorry. You are paying me to go out with you, to have dinner in this lovely restaurant, and here am I spoiling your great night out by saying something that makes you unhappy." 

“Don’t say that,” Zero said.

“Say what?” 

“Say things like how I’m paying you and that means you can’t do anything that I might not like,” Zero started to moved forward as though he wanted to reach out to touch Jude’s hand, then stopped. “I mean, I’m paying you, yeah. But that doesn’t mean you have to do everything I ask, even if you are uncomfortable with it.”

Jude opened his mouth, ready to ask more questions, because whatever he had been expecting Zero to say, _that_ definitely wasn’t it. But their conversation was abruptly put on hold as the waitress returned, this time with two plates of food. Jude waited for her to move out of hearing range before he let loose on Zero. 

“What are you talking about?” he asked, genuinely confused. “Is that – is that why you haven’t had sex with me?” 

Something shifted on Zero’s face, and he suddenly looked strangely vulnerable and open. It was a look Jude would usually never associate with Zero. But it disappeared almost at once, replaced by that same impenetrable expression Jude had grown familiar with. “I’ve had sex with escorts before. I had fun, they had fun, and they got paid for it. Win-win situation all around. But I don’t think you’re in this line because you think it’s a fun way to earn money.” 

Jude exhaled. “I’m in this line because it is a fast way to earn money,” he said. He paused, unsure if he should continue. It wasn’t exactly appropriate dinnertime conversation.

Zero began cutting up his steak. “Hey, we’ve got all night. Hit me with your best shot.”

So Jude talked. He talked about his mum, the cancer that had slowly crept up on her until it became a full-blown illness, leaving her bedridden and barely able to speak. He talked about how the resident oncologist had told him, heavily and regretfully, to prepare for the worst, and start looking into palliative care options. He talked about how he, struggling with his final year of college then, had consulted with different specialists, trying desperately to find a cure, frantic for a glimmer of hope. He talked about how it had all been for nothing, and his mother had eventually left him, leaving Jude well and truly alone in the world.

Jude wasn’t sure how long he talked for, but his mouth was dry and he felt cathartic in a way he hadn’t for a long time. It was a story he had never told anyone before – even Lionel had only heard bits and pieces of it here and there.

Zero was silent for a long time. It stretched on for so long that Jude started to panic. Had he said too much? Just because Zero had asked Jude to _hit him with his best shot_ didn’t mean that he wanted to hear Jude’s sob story in its entirety.

Finally, Zero spoke. “I suspected as much,” he said. “You are a very brave man, Jude Kinkade.”

“Errr, thanks,” Jude muttered, feeling embarrassed now to have revealed so much about himself. He hastily shoveled the last of his spaghetti into his mouth, then reached out for his milkshake. 

“Of course, you are also a very lucky man, because you met me,” Zero added. 

The comment caught Jude off-guard, and he couldn’t hold back a loud chuckle. “I concur,” he said lightly. “And maybe I could show you how much I appreciate it…?” Jude let his voice trail off suggestively. 

He didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or embarrassed when Zero didn’t reply, just lifted a hand to flag down someone for the bill.

-

 _Here we go again,_ Jude thought. They were standing, once again, in the middle of a car park, surrounded by cars. He half-expected Zero to deliver his usual goodbye right now before walking off, like he had all those other times.

Jude wasn’t sure how exactly it happened, or when it happened. Perhaps it was when Zero made full on eye contact with Jude, his eyes searching for something in Jude’s face, then softening as though he had found what he was looking for. It might have been when Zero’s strong arms wrapped around him and those big rough basketballer’s hands clamped down onto his back. Or maybe it began right when those full pink lips that had been driving Jude crazy began moving closer, parted invitingly like a siren’s call.

Jude’s mind, ever the analytical, logical thing, tried to hold onto and follow that train of thought. But the first press of Zero’s mouth on his sent every coherent thought rushing out of his head. All he could register was the spicy scent of Zero’s aftershave, the brush of Zero’s stubble against his sensitive upper lip and chin, and the warmth of Zero’s body seeping through the two layers of clothes between them, filling Jude with an intense longing he had never experienced before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing something weird with the Zude pairing tag? There are only 37 works under this tag now and most of the recent works are all gone (though still accessible via my bookmarks and the Jude Kinkade tag, thankfully). :O


	5. Revelations

The ride to Zero’s place was a blur. All Jude recalled was the warmth of Zero’s hand on his thigh as he navigated the roads leading back to his place, and the intense, blazing looks Zero shot him throughout the drive back. 

Zero pulled up at his place, a sprawling mansion that was equal parts over-the-top and opulent. Jude would have jibed Zero about it, if he wasn’t all of three seconds away from jumping the guy at that moment.

Zero parked the car and they got out. Jude trailed after Zero like a duckling following its mother as Zero unlocked the door and crossed the foyer into the living room. Jude watched as Zero turned on the lights and pulled off his leather jacket to toss it over the arm of the leather upholstery.

It felt like an eternity had passed, but in reality probably only a few seconds had ticked by before Zero turned to look at Jude. In two steps, Jude had strode across the room, grabbed Zero’s face and pressed their lips together.

Zero made a sound that could have been surprise or arousal, or maybe both. His own hands came up to rest on Jude’s shoulders, before sliding down to unbutton Jude’s shirt. Both men’s motions grew frantic as they eagerly divested each other of their clothes.

Jude had a moment of self-consciousness when the last piece of clothing fell away from Zero’s body, revealing miles of smooth tanned skin and hard muscle. Then his gaze dropped to the massive erection between Zero’s legs, and he licked his lips unconsciously, already imagining how it would feel taking that impressive length up his ass.

That little action apparently didn’t go unnoticed by Zero, who groaned and dragged Jude in for another toe-curling kiss. Neither of them were willing to be the first to pull away, and in the end Zero managed to walk Jude backwards in the direction of what Jude hoped was the bedroom with their lips still pressed together.

Once they were safely on the bed, Zero reached into the bedside drawer for condoms and lube and tossed onto the bed. Jude barely managed to suppress a shiver at the thought that Zero would be using those things on him soon enough.

Smiling, Zero pulled Jude close and kissed him again. This time the kiss was brief, ending abruptly when Zero gestured for Jude to shift so that he was on his hands and knees, his ass facing Zero and Zero’s groin inches away from his face.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Zero wanted, and anyway Jude had been waiting for this moment for far longer than he would like to admit. He took Zero’s cock into his mouth and began sucking on it enthusiastically, using every skill from his personal repertoire in his determination to give Zero as much pleasure as possible. 

Zero growled and cursed under his breath, and damn if it wasn’t intoxicating, knowing that Jude was the one who was doing this to Zero. Then Jude felt big hands roughly pulling his ass cheeks apart, and the inquisitive swipe of Zero’s tongue against his hole, and it was Jude’s turn to curse.

Jude whimpered as Zero licked all around his rim, then plunged his tongue into his hole. He gave Zero’s cock one last lingering lick, then pulled away. Zero groaned and started to follow, but Jude stilled him with a hand on his chest. 

Zero raised an eyebrow but stayed down, looking up at Jude with a hint of challenge in his eyes. Jude forced himself to maintain eye contact with Zero as he grabbed the condom, then moved to kneel in between Zero’s legs. He tore open the little square foil and rolled the condom over Zero’s cock, took the bottle of lube and squeezed a generous amount onto his palm.

“I’m flattered by how well-endowed you think I am, but that’s a bit of an overkill, don’t you think?” came Zero’s drawl, from where the man was sprawled out lazily over the comforter.

In response, Jude wrapped a lube slick hand around the base of Zero’s cock and languidly stroked it up and down the shaft, enjoying the way the cocky grin promptly melted off Zero’s face. He quickly reached behind himself to rub the remainder of the lube over his hole, then straddled Zero.

Zero’s hands clamped down onto Jude’s thighs as his cock slowly sank into Jude’s hole. When the full length was buried in Jude, Jude had to pause for a second or two, his eyes closed and his breath coming out in short, sharp pants as he struggled to adjust to the sensation of Zero’s hard throbbing length deep inside him, burning him from inside out.

Beneath him, Zero groaned, his fingers digging into the quivering muscle of Jude’s thighs as though it was taking him every ounce of willpower to not thrust up into Jude. 

Finally, Jude’s breathing evened and the tension in his body eased. He tentatively rocked his hips against Zero’s, drawing a grunt from the other man. The motion sent little sparkles of electricity ratcheting off every nerve, and Jude moaned, loud and shameless, as he repeated it over and over again. 

It felt good, so fucking good, but Jude needed more. He awkwardly clambered onto his feet so that he was squatting over Zero’s body, careful not to let Zero slip out of him. Zero currently looked like he had just suffered one hit too many in the head with a basketball, but he seemed to realize what Jude had in mind, and helpfully steadied Jude with a hand on his ass. 

Jude braced his hands on the bed, lifted himself off Zero’s cock, then lowered himself back down. The new angle hit his prostrate straight on, and it wasn’t long before he was riding Zero with abandon, fucking himself on that thick delicious cock while jerking himself off with one hand.

The first thrust upwards from Zero caught Jude completely off-guard, ripping a small shriek from his lips. But he barely had any time to be embarrassed by it, because Zero’s hands were clenching his ass in a vice grip while he pistoned in and out of Jude in a frenzied rhythm. Jude couldn’t do anything except hang on for the ride, mewling helplessly as Zero fucked him. 

Zero let out a guttural roar when he came, his hands holding Jude’s ass in place as he emptied himself inside the condom. Jude trembled and whimpered, his own cock still rock hard and jutting out from his groin. 

Zero withdrew from Jude and guided Jude to lie on the bed with a gentleness that Jude hadn’t been expecting. He slipped off the used condom and tied off the top, then carelessly tossed it into the general direction of the waste paper basket near the door. Jude laughed weakly when it – lo and behold – actually went in. Zero simply shrugged in response, as if to ask if Jude had expected any less.

Jude gasped and grasped at the bedsheets as Zero leaned down and took his cock into his mouth. He was already so close that the sight of Zero working his mouth over Jude’s cock and that blond head bobbing up and down over his lap nearly had him coming on the spot.

Then Zero looked up, his eyes meeting Jude’s, and he winked. That wicked, knowing glance was all it took to send Jude tipping over the edge. His toes curled and he moaned as he came in Zero’s mouth. 

The mortification overtook Jude as he began to come down from his orgasmic high and his brain registered what he had just done to Zero. He should probably have tried to warn Zero and gave the other guy sufficient time to get out of the way, but he had been totally gone by then.

“Sorry,” Jude managed to croak out, still not having regained all of his bodily functions. 

Zero look puzzled for a moment, then realization dawned on his face and he laughed. “It’s fine. I’m too irresistible for my own good, I know.”

“Ha, ha,” Jude shuffled out of bed with a wince. He was definitely going to feel that for a few days.

“Where are you going?” Zero called out as Jude wandered into the living room, picking up his underwear from where it was strewn on the floor. At least, he hoped it was his underwear, because the other pair lying at the foot of the sofa looked almost identical to the ones he was holding. 

“Where do you think I could be going?” Jude replied as he tugged his clothes on. 

Zero appeared at the doorway. He was still gloriously naked and his usually immaculately gelled hair was ruffled and falling into his eyes. He looked so utterly gorgeous that Jude had to force his eyes back down to where his hands were buttoning up his jeans. 

“Your car is still at the restaurant,” Zero said.

“I’ll take a cab back tonight. I can always pick the car up tomorrow.” 

There was a long silence, which Jude attributed to Zero being too fucked out to function with normal human reactionary times at the time being, and wasn’t that a nice thought to have? 

“I could send you back.”

“It’s okay,” Jude took out his phone and waved it at Zero. “I’ll call for a cab. It shouldn’t take long.”

“Sure you don’t want to join me for a shower first?” Zero waggled his eyebrows at Jude.

Jude’s cock gave a traitorous twitch at the thought of Zero, dripping wet and prowling towards Jude like a lion going in for the kill. He opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as Zero’s phone started to ring. 

Zero grabbed his phone from where it was lying face down on the sofa to look at the caller ID. He looked at Jude apologetically and mouthed the words _Hold on_ as he answered the call.

“Hey…of course I got what you want. When have I ever broke a promise?” were the last words Jude heard as Zero headed back into the bedroom and shut the door behind him. The insinuation of Zero’s words, combined with the decidedly flirtatious tone Zero’s voice had taken, hit Jude like a blow to the gut.

There was a notepad and pen lying on the coffee table, but Jude didn’t bother to leave a note for Zero before letting himself out of the house. 

Outside, the wind was bitingly cold and whipped cruelly at his face and neck, but Jude barely registered it over the chill that had taken hold of his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loveeee Jude, I really do. I don't know why I insist on tormenting him so in this story. :X But hey, the boys finally have their first time!


	6. Blurred lines

Jude read and reread his cover letter until he was confident it was free of typos and sufficiently conveyed how perfect a fit he was for the position. He made sure the latest copy of his resume was attached to the email, then finally hit send. 

He knew how competitive the job market was right now, especially for the entry level positions he was applying for. He had no real job experience, not even a decent internship to speak of. All Jude could hope for was to at least land a few job interviews – and cross his fingers that nobody would ask him about the one year gap between his graduation and now.

Still, it had been a productive morning. There were some really enticing jobs being advertised that he had applied for immediately, like that junior agent position at Sportslink and the opening for a sports analyst at Inside Sports Network. Jude had been hunched over his laptop for four hours straight, which was something of an anomaly, because usually by this time his phone would have been bombarded with messages from Lionel and Zero. 

Jude leaned back against his chair and stretched, relishing the pop of joints that had been curled in the same stagnant position for the last few hours. He would eat out for lunch today, he decided. It had been a while since he had an afternoon to himself, and he fully intended to make good use of this rare time alone. 

Jude grabbed his wallet and phone and left his place. The lift doors opened with a ping, and he stepped in, pressing the button for the ground floor. When the lift reached the ground floor and the doors opened, he looked up and did a double take.

Zero was leaning against the wall opposite the lift landing, his hands tucked into the pocket of his jeans. He straightened when he saw Jude. 

Confused, Jude came to a stop in front of Zero. Was Zero supposed to come over today? Had he even given Zero his address in the first place?

“Where were you?” Zero demanded. His eyes were covered with aviators, but Jude could still sense the decided air of grumpiness that shrouded him.

“At home,” Jude responded warily. He wasn’t sure where all that irritation radiating from Zero was coming from – and why it was directed at him in the first place.

“I texted you. I also called you. Like five times.”

“Did you? I didn’t receive anything.” To prove his point, Jude took out his phone and showed Zero his call and message history.

“Dude, there’s something wrong with your phone,” Zero pulled out his own phone and flicked open his call log. Sure enough, the last few calls were all to Jude, and each call was accompanied by the little no answer symbol.

Zero swiftly pocketed his phone again, but not before Jude caught sight of the call listing right below the ones Zero had made to him. _Kendall TMZ_ , it read. 

Jude had all night to get over the rude but not altogether unexpected discovery that Zero was either hooking up with someone else, or in a burgeoning serious relationship – he still wasn’t sure which was worse. But his stomach still churned at the thought that this Kendall was apparently the mysterious caller from the night before, the one who had Zero rushing to answer her call in private, not five minutes after hopping out of bed with Jude.

Jude gave himself a firm mental _get the hell over yourself_ shake. “Looks like it,” he smiled lightly, hoping that his expression was suitably unaffected and casual. “But what are you doing here? I don’t remember telling you where I stay.”

“You left your car outside the restaurant yesterday. Thought I’d pick you up to go and get it, so you don’t have to take a cab there. Then we can spend the rest of the day hanging out.”

Jude didn’t miss the way Zero conveniently avoided answering his question about how he had acquired Jude’s address. But he couldn’t keep himself from smiling at how surprisingly sweet Zero was being. “Thanks, but you don’t really have to do this.”

“I’m free today,” Zero shrugged. “Although to be frank I wasn’t expecting to spend the morning of my first day off in a week waiting around in a lobby.”

“I’m really sorry,” Jude said sincerely. “I probably should have changed my phone a year ago, but…”

“Not sure if a verbal apology is enough. I did wait for an hour, you know.” 

“I’ll make it up to you later,” Jude said coyly. “But first I need that answer on how you got my address.”

“Fine. I got it from Lionel.”

“And she gave it to you just like that?”

“Hey, who can resist this?” Zero gestured to himself and gave Jude a huge, smarmy grin.

“I would believe that, if I don’t know Lionel myself,” Jude said dryly.

“Then you are underestimating my ability to charm people,” Zero said airily. He grabbed Jude’s arm and steered him out of the building. “Anyway, we can talk in the car. Let’s get going, I’m ravenous. Waiting for an hour can do that to someone." 

“You are never going to let that go, are you?” Jude grumbled.

Zero just laughed in response.

-

After they had collected Jude’s car, Zero strong-armed Jude into driving it all the way back to his apartment to drop it off, so they could drive around in Zero’s car for the rest of the day.

It was already mid-afternoon by the time they finished lunch and reached Zero’s place. Jude watched as Zero tossed his keys and wallet on the table and padded off to the kitchen, suddenly feeling hesitant. What was supposed to happen now? Had Zero brought him back expecting sex? Should Jude start undressing?

Zero returned from the kitchen, holding two beers and a bag of chips. “Figured I might as well make it a cheat day since we already had McDonald’s for lunch,” he said. He put the food on the table and strode over to fiddle with the enormous flat screen TV. “Want to watch _Alien_?”

Grateful that he hadn’t went and made things awkward by stripping off right there in the living room, Jude sat down on the sofa. “Sure.”

Zero pressed something on the remote and joined Jude on the couch. He hiked his legs up and dropped them onto the table in front of the sofa. Jude twitched a little as Zero’s shoulder brushed against him. If Zero noticed, he chose not to comment on it. 

The first few minutes of the movie were torment. Jude might have had sex with the guy just last night, but he never had Zero pressed so close to him before in a completely innocent, platonic situation like this. He could feel the body heat radiating off Zero, even glimpse Zero’s unfairly handsome profile from the corner of his eye, all long lashes, dark scruff and thick lips. 

Fortunately, the movie quickly drew Jude in, and before he knew it, nearly an hour had passed and the facehugger had just released its hell grip on John Hurt’s face. He jerked in surprise when Zero leaned in towards him.

“If you don’t dare to watch the scary scenes later, you are welcome to hide your face in my chest,” Zero whispered. He sounded perfectly serious, but the twinkle in his eyes belied the sincerity of his offer. 

Jude decided that the only reasonable response was to shove Zero off the sofa.

-

When the movie ended and the credits started rolling, Zero stood up and stretched, arching his back like a cat. The hem of his T-shirt rode up, revealing the V-shaped lines along his pelvis and making Jude flush. He quickly looked away before Zero could catch him staring and make more of his innuendoes. 

“I’m going to head out and grab dinner. How does Chinese food sound?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, see you in a while. You can watch the sequel if you want, remote’s on the table.” Zero stuffed his wallet into his back pocket and headed to the door.

Jude took out his phone and fiddled with it as he waited for Zero. He wondered if he should have just asked to tag along. He had quite liked sitting snuggled up next to Zero just now, and he would rather wait for Zero to be back so they could watch the sequel together as well. 

Jude didn’t think Zero would object to him exploring the house, but it felt too much like he would be snooping without Zero there to bring him around.

His phone was still conspicuously silent with not a single notification for him when he would have usually received dozens by now. He sighed and made a mental note to buy a new phone the next day – it wouldn’t do for him to miss out calls from prospective employees just because of a spoilt phone. 

Approximately half an hour later, the door swung open and Zero stepped in, holding several takeaway bags and an Apple carrier.

“Hey, went shopping?” Jude greeted as he walked over to help Zero bring the bags of food into the kitchen. 

“Nope. That one’s for you,” Zero responded absently as he went around grabbing cutlery and cups from various drawers.

“What?” Jude said intelligently.

“It’s for you,” Zero repeated. He dragged a chair out and sat down at the table. “Do you want to eat first or do you want to open your present first?”

Jude shot Zero a disbelieving look as he grabbed the Apple carrier and peered into it. Sure enough, there was a brand new iPhone in there, wrapped up in its pristine white box.

“Oh. Um, thanks,” Jude felt a little overwhelmed. Nobody had ever given him such an expensive present before.

“You’re welcome. And for the love of God, please set it up ASAP so I don’t need to wait an hour for you at your lift lobby the next time I want to take you out on a date.”

Jude pointed his fork threateningly at Zero. “I swear, bring that up again one more time and…”

“And you’ll make me sleep on the couch?” Zero speared his own fork into a piece of sweet and sour pork, completely unrepentant.

Jude just shook his head, although he knew he was smiling too widely for his exasperation to be convincing. 

They struck up an easy conversation over dinner, Jude telling Zero about his job hunt, the sort of work he hoped to do and the few openings he had applied for so far. Zero sat up when Jude mentioned that he had applied for a junior sports agent position at Sportslink.

“Sportslink? That’s my agency.”

“I know. You’re being managed by Lucas Emerson, right?”

“Mmm. Sure you didn’t apply for that job to get closer to me?”

“Honestly, no. And Sportslink’s massive, I might not even end up in the basketball division.”

Zero looked at him slyly over his plate of fried rice. “Who knows, I might fire Lucas and Sportslink will suddenly find themselves wanting of an agent for me.”

Jude rolled his eyes. “And as a wannabe sports agent, my advice for you is to not even think about it. Lucas isn’t the best but he’s hardly the worst. Fire him and you might end up with someone who will really screw you over.” 

Zero gave Jude a heated look. “Do you know how hot you are when you talk like that?”

Jude attempted to give Zero the must unimpressed look he could muster up. The smirk that was spreading over Zero’s face told him he hadn’t managed that very well. 

“Any reason why you want to get rid of Lucas?” Jude asked, trying to change the subject. 

“He’s Derek’s agent too. I had my own reasons to agree to be traded to the Devils but I know Lucas wasn’t thinking about making me a star when he proposed the trade. I’m letting him remain happily ignorant for now, but he’s getting onto my nerves.” 

“Derek’s top dog in the team now, and Lucas thinks his best bets are with him. So everything he’s doing now is for Derek’s benefit.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, if Lucas isn’t doing his job, then you will just have to do it yourself. A guy like Derek Roman is sure to have skeletons in his closet, something you can use to gain leverage against him with.” 

“Again, exactly.” Zero looked at Jude with undisguised admiration in his eyes. Jude blushed, unused to being the object of this kind of attention. Usually when people looked at him with admiration it was because of his physical assets or whatever miraculous sexual feat he had performed on them. This was nothing like he had ever experienced before.

“But if you want to be the star of the team, it isn’t just Derek you need to deal with. There’s Terrence Wall too,” Jude said.

Zero’s grin reminded Jude of a great white shark. “Already settled.”

“You…” 

“I may have fed a rumor or two to a TMZ reporter. Just wait and see. The wall is coming down.”

A little light went off in Jude’s head as he put two and two together. “Was that what the phone call last night was for?”

Zero nodded. “She needs a story. I need to get rid of Terrence. Wins all around.” 

Jude laughed, the knots in his stomach abruptly releasing and the heaviness in his heart dissipating. Zero raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Last night, when she called, I thought it was your girlfriend, or something,” Jude explained, trying his best not to sound like a suspicious, jealous teenage girlfriend.

“Was that why you disappeared without so much as a ‘Bye, Zero’?”

Jude fumbled his way through an explanation. “I, uh, didn’t want to interrupt?”

Jude half-expected Zero to get irritated, and remind Jude about the transactional nature of their relationship and how ridiculous Jude was being, behaving like a jealous boyfriend when he wasn’t. But Zero just shook his head and said, “I told you I’m not interested in seeing anyone else.”

Jude knew what Zero really meant, but it didn’t stop the jolt of pleasure that went running through his veins when Zero said those words.

“What dirt did you dig up on Terrence Wall?” Jude finally asked, bringing the conversation back to the original subject.

Zero folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, looking exceedingly pleased with himself. “I overheard a few things in the Arena. Terrence’s game has been off lately, and he and Derek have been whispering a lot about a leg injury of some kind.”

Realization dawned on Jude. “The play-offs are coming, and he can’t afford to be pulled now if he wants to get MVP."

Zero nodded with all the self-satisfaction of a cat which had gotten the cream. “Hole in one. Sure you don’t want me to talk to the agency about replacing Lucas?”

“Wait for me to get a call back first,” Jude said wryly.

-

“Good morning. I’m Jude Kinkade and I’m here for a job interview,” Jude said to the girl at the front office desk.

“Take a seat please,” she replied, indicating to a row of cushioned chairs behind Jude.

Jude put his briefcase on floor next to the chair and sat down. He smoothed down his tie even though it didn’t need any smoothing, and looked around. Sportslink was massive, and also fantastically rich, and it showed. Their front office alone was bigger than Jude’s entire apartment. The floor was decked out in plush maroon carpet and everything, from the impeccable off-white walls to the posh dark furniture, spelt class and money.

There was even little refreshment corner provided, complete with a water dispenser that had knobs for both cold and hot water, and a Nespresso machine. Jude was still deciding whether or not to go ahead and make himself a coffee when the receptionist called his name. 

“Mr. Kinkade, the panel will be ready for you in ten minutes. Please take the lift to the twelfth floor, turn right and walk straight. You will see the holding area.” 

“Noted,” Jude replied. 

He found the holding area easily enough. There was only one other guy there, presumably another candidate. Jude sat down and pulled out his phone. He grinned when he saw that he had a new message from Zero.

_Good luck! Not that you need it, since they hired Lucas and you are like 100x better than him._

Zero had been ecstatic, to say the least, when he found out that Jude had a job interview with Sportslink. He had offered to talk to the management to get Jude shooed in for the position, no interview needed. Jude had immediately shot down the idea. He wanted to get in on his own terms, based on his own merits.

Jude had also pointed out to Zero, very reasonably, that if discretion was what Zero was looking for when he had proposed this arrangement to Jude, having him talk to the agency on Jude’s behalf was a surefire way for reporters to get up his ass about Jude. That had effectively taken the wind out of Zero’s sails, and Jude had barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Zero. It was amazing how the guy could be downright cunning in certain situations and yet be so oblivious in others.

Jude started when someone suddenly slipped into the seat next to his. 

“Hey, I’m Danny,” the other guy stuck out his hand.

“Jude,” Jude responded on instinct as he shook Danny’s hand. Danny had a good, firm handshake, which immediately made Jude feel more receptive towards him.

“I assume you’re here for an interview?” Danny smiled, his eyes crinkling up charmingly at the corners.

 Jude couldn’t help smiling back. “Yeah, I am. Let me guess, junior sports agent.”

“Wow, I wonder how you came to that conclusion,” Danny replied.

Jude chuckled. “I know, right? Hey, did the lady at the front office tell you how long you would have to wait for?”

“I actually came early – like, really early. She did tell me I could go ahead first if the next guy didn’t come in on time, but you are here so I guess I’ll be going in after you are done.”

“Ah, I see. Good luck.”

“Thanks, man. Same to you.”

A door swung open and a stocky, bespectacled man poked his head in. “Mr. Kinkade, the interviewers are ready to meet you.”

-

The call came in barely a week later, when Jude was at Zero’s place watching Zero’s attempts at making chicken pot pie.

 “Hello, Jude Kinkade,” Jude said into the phone.

“Hello, Mr. Kinkade. Joseph from Sportslink here. We are pleased to offer you the position of junior agent with us. Are you free to come by next week to discuss the details of the job offer?”

“That’s great! Definitely. What date are you looking at?”

“Will the coming Monday morning be good?”

“Yea, that’s fine. Thank you.”

“We will email you the details. Have a great day, Mr. Kinkade.”

Jude hung up the phone, still grinning. It was a little surreal that he had found a job, just like that.

The smile dropped off his face as he remembered the conditions of his arrangement with Zero. It was a conversation he had been putting off for a while, but there was no more beating around the bush now.

Tonight, Jude told himself. Tonight he would talk to Zero about it. 

-

“You’re in a good mood today,” Zero commented over dinner that night.

Jude took a bite of his chicken pot pie. It was surprisingly good – the chicken, peas and carrots were tender and richly flavored, and the crust was flaky and buttery and not overly greasy.

He chewed, and swallowed. “I found a job.”

“That’s fast. The agent position you went to interview for?” 

“Yup.”

“Told you you’d be a shoo-in.” Zero leaned over to bump his shoulder against Jude's.

Jude preened. “They want me to go in on Monday to discuss the details of the job offer.”

Zero hummed. “Did they tell you anything else?” 

“Nope,” Jude put his knife and fork down. “I wanted to talk to you about that, actually.” 

“Fire away.”

Jude took a deep breath. “I know you told me I could find a job as long as it doesn’t interfere with me meeting you. But that might be a problem. I will be working an office job, which means I can’t just pop out to meet you whenever.”

“Well, that sucks,” Zero turned to face Jude. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“I will be earning money now. Not as much as when I was escorting but it’s still money. I can start paying you back whatever you have given me so far once I get my first paycheck. It will take me a while to pay you back everything, but it’s still something. And you can stop giving me the allowance.” Zero started to open his mouth to say something, and Jude hastened to add, “But I’ll still go out with you. If you want to.”

Jude could practically see the wheels turning in Zero’s head. “You are one hell of a salesman, that much I’ll give you,” Zero said at last. “But what if I reject your proposal?”

“You said before that I don’t have to do everything you ask me to,” Jude said stubbornly. “Are you making me say no to something I really want just because you don’t like it?”

Zero looked rueful. “I did say that, yeah. Probably should have kept my mouth shut.” 

“So…” Jude prompted.

“So we’ll continue with the arrangement like before. And you can keep your job.” Zero went back to his food.

Jude stared. “You want – you want to keep paying me?”

Zero winced. “You know, I kinda prefer it when you refer to it as ‘giving you an allowance’.”

“But _why_?” Jude asked plaintively. “Whatever I was offering you is a way better deal for you than this.” 

Zero spooned the last of his food into his mouth. “You are a smart guy, Jude,” he said around a mouthful of pie. “I’m sure you can figure it out.”

He stood up and patted Jude on the shoulder. “It’s your turn to do the dishes tonight. I’ll get the movie started.” 

Jude turned his eyes to the ceiling and sighed.


	7. Meetings and introductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait guys, but Chapter 7 is finally up! Thank you, my dear readers who have been leaving me comments and asking after me. It's really sweet and totally appreciated. :') I may not be able to update as quickly as I used to but I'm definitely going to finish up this story, so thank you for sticking it out with me, everyone. <3

“Zero…fuck...oh –” there was nothing particularly coherent about the babble that was currently coming out of Jude’s mouth as he gripped white-knuckled at silken sheets, feeling the burn and stretch of Zero’s cock pushing into his ass. 

Zero leaned down over Jude’s sweaty back to mouth at his neck, making Jude writhe in pleasure. “Like that, darling?” he murmured.

“Fuck…you know I do,” Jude gritted out.

Zero, apparently pleased with this reply, chuckled as he continued to pump his hips in and out of Jude leisurely. Jude turned his head towards Zero, a snappy comeback at the ready, then Zero snapped his hips _just_ right, the head of his cock rubbing up against Jude’s prostate, and all that came out of Jude’s mouth was a wanton little moan. 

A prickle of pain at his neck broke through the fog of pleasure that had clouded his senses. Jude dimly registered Zero mouthing at his neck, licking and sucking none too gently at the tender skin of his neck. He briefly wondered if he should try to push Zero away – he was starting a new job the next day and the last thing he needed was to show up on the first day of work looking like a horny teenager.

But the soft, teasing nibbling felt so good, and each stroke of Zero’s cock was hitting his sweet spot so perfectly, sending pulses of pleasure through Jude’s lower back all the way to his dick. All Jude could do was moan as Zero brought him closer and closer to the edge, trying desperately to brace himself for the topple into oblivion. 

- 

“You couldn’t have saved your Dracula impersonation for when I’m _not_ starting a new job the next day?” Jude grumbled as he looked at himself in the mirror, turning his head this way and that to get a closer look at the marks Zero had left him with. 

The man in question was sprawled out over the bed like a big, lazy cat, naked as the day as he was born and looking completely unconcerned by Jude’s admonishments. “You weren’t complaining five minutes ago,” Zero grinned.

Jude rolled his eyes and pushed himself off the bathroom counter, turning to head back to the bed. His shirt and tie would cover up the worst of the marks, and it wasn’t like he could do anything else about the bruises blossoming on his neck. Zero’s grin widened as he reached out to pull Jude into his arms, his lips finding Jude’s and his hands sliding down Jude’s back to palm his ass lewdly.

Jude closed his eyes contentedly, enjoying the scrape of Zero’s stubble against his lips and the way Zero’s hands roughly kneaded his ass. He felt Zero’s erection slowly stirring to life once more and poking at his thigh, and it came as a surprise – and somewhat of a disappointment – when Zero pulled away.

“Zero,” Jude whined, not even bothering to hide the pout in his voice.

Zero just raised a finger as if to say _give me a moment_ as he reached over to pull open his bedside drawer. He took out a wrapped package and dropped it into Jude’s lap. “This is for you.” 

“For me?” Jude echoed. “For what?” The package bounced a little in his lap. It was a long rectangle shape and wrapped in shiny blue paper. He picked it up and shook it, trying to decipher the contents from the sound the package made. 

“Open it and see.”

Jude shot Zero a disbelieving look, but he dutifully began unwrapping it. He tried to be careful when tearing off the scotch taped edges of the paper, not wanting to ruin any part of his gift from Zero, until Zero let out an impatient noise and grabbed it out of Jude’s hands to do it himself. 

“Here you go,” Zero announced, presenting the gift to Jude with a flourish of his hand. “You are welcome.”

“A tie?” It was a _very_ nice tie, silver with navy accents and from a brand that Jude knew easily cost three or four times what Jude was usually willing to pay for ties. “I already have ties.”

And damn it, that didn’t come out right. It sounded like Jude disliked the tie, or resented Zero for giving it to him, when in reality the little gesture from Zero warmed Jude from the inside out and made him want to kiss Zero, hard, and also get onto his knees to suck the other man off until he screamed. 

“Of course you do,” Zero said flippantly. “And now you have another one.”

Jude smiled, relieved that Zero hadn’t been offended. “I love it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Zero took the tie back from Jude and put it onto the bedside table, then wrapped his arms around Jude eagerly. “Now where were we at?” 

- 

“Welcome to the team, Jude!” Joseph grabbed Jude’s outstretched hand and pumped it up and down vigorously. He had a wet, meaty grip that reminded Jude unpleasantly of Chris, and Jude had to force himself repress those rather unpleasant memories and smile back at the other man. 

Jude kept the pleasant, professional little smile on his face as Joseph brought him into the office and introduced him to the rest of the team. There were quite a number of introductions in total, but Jude remained unfazed, making sure to take note of those he knew he would be working closely with, and those he hoped to be working closely with in the future. Namely, fellow junior sports agents like himself, and more senior agents who had notable names in their portfolios. 

“Lucas, this is Jude,” Joseph said amiably as he brought Jude to another section of the office. The agent in question was on his laptop, fingers clicking away at his keyboard. Jude would have been impressed at how hard the other man was working, if not for the shifty way he immediately switched tabs on his browser and the twitch in his eyes when he turned to face them.

“Fresh meat, huh?” Lucas drawled as he let his eyes travel over Jude’s body.

Jude let out a tinkle of laughter, putting enough mirth in it for him to appear amicable, but not letting it go on to the point where Lucas might think Jude was just another ignorant, eager-to-please newcomer to exploit. 

“Lucas, don’t go scaring off the new guy even before he gets a chance to see his desk,” Joseph replied.

Lucas gave a mock salute. “Whatever you say, Joseph.” He nodded at Jude. “All the best. Give me a buzz if you need anything. Happy to lend a hand anytime.” And while Joseph clearly didn’t pick up on it, Jude didn’t miss the way Lucas smacked his lips together when he said “hand”, his little offer of help obviously anything but. 

“Here’s your desk,” Joseph said, bringing Jude to a little cubicle in the corner of the office. “The seat next to yours is empty for now. Another new guy, Danny, will be coming in tomorrow.” 

“Danny?”

“Yes. You might have seen him at your interview, he came in the same day you did.” 

“Yeah, we talked,” Jude felt a little stir of excitement, knowing that he wouldn’t be totally alone at his new job. Danny had been nice and normal, friendly even. And most importantly, he didn’t know Jude’s background or history. And if there was anything Jude needed, it was having someone in his life who was blissfully unaware of Jude’s past and the kind of things he had done. 

Beside him, Joseph was still rambling on, oblivious to Jude’s musings. 

“Your laptop has already been set up with your e-mail address, and you should be able to access the shared drive. We are starting you off easy with one client to work with for now, but of course you can expect your portfolio to expand once you have settled in. Here are the documents on your client –” 

“Bryan Madd, Los Angeles Devils,” Jude said as he accepted the thick stack of papers from Joseph. He flipped through the first few pages, his eyes quickly picking up on key parts of the athlete’s profile.

“You know him?” Joseph sounded impressed. 

“I’ve heard of him,” Jude didn’t mention that he had been tracking college league basketball for the last few years now, not wanting to appear like a know-it-all on his first day of work. The last time Jude had read about Bryan Madd, he had been an up-and-coming player at the University of Massachusetts. It was surprising that the Devils would sign on someone who was fresh out of playing college ball, but maybe they had seen something in Bryan that Jude hadn’t, or the Devils was just that badly in need of new players.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then,” Joseph gave Jude a little wave and went off. 

Once Joseph was gone, Jude sat down at his desk and looked down at the piles of papers and the laptop in front of him.

_Well, here goes nothing._

- 

It had taken some time, but eventually Jude convinced himself that he had a perfectly professional and legitimate reason to go down to the Devils Arena in the middle of the day when he knew the team would be having one of their practice sessions.

He would give Bryan a ring, touch base with the guy and let him know Jude would be his agent for the foreseeable future, later in the afternoon. But as far as Jude knew, nobody had told Bryan yet who his new agent would be – apparently his last agent had just quit the company – and Jude wanted to check the guy out during practice, see how he played and measured up against the rest of the team.

Jude wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed when he reached the courts to see the players in groups shooting hoops, with Zero nowhere to be seen. He took a seat at the bleachers and took out a notebook, forcing himself to focus on how Bryan was doing on the court, and not think about where Zero could be and what he could be doing.

Jude was busy scribbling down notes on Bryan’s play and that it took a while for him to realize there was someone sitting next to him. He looked up from the notebook in his lap, taking in tanned, toned calves, stupidly attractive knees (who the hell even had knees that looked that good?), and a bright red Devils uniform before his eyes finally rested on Zero’s face.

“I was starting to wonder how long I’d have to sit here before you even realized I was here,” Zero remarked. 

Jude made a face. “Was busy. You should’ve said something.”

“And miss that look on your face when you finally noticed there was someone beside you?” Zero winked. “No thanks.”

Jude swatted Zero with his notebook. “I didn’t have any _look_ on my face.” 

Zero grinned. “So what brings you here, Mr. Agent? Is this a booty call?”

“You wish. I’m here for work. My new client is Bryan Madd.” 

Zero raised his eyebrows. “Ah.”

Jude considered himself to be pretty good at reading people. And he had gotten especially good at reading Zero over the past month or so. But he couldn’t tell what Zero meant by that. Feeling nervous and not particularly understanding why he was feeling that way, because Jude was just doing his job right now, damn it, he turned his eyes back onto the court.

After a while, Zero spoke up again. “He’s alright. Plays decent ball. Chill kind of guy. Won’t give you much trouble.” 

Jude turned to look at Zero. “I’m having a hard time deciding if that’s a compliment or an insult.”

Zero gave a little shrug of his shoulders that didn’t do anything to answer Jude’s question. Jude rolled his eyes, then started as Zero put a hand on his knee. 

“You look good,” Zero said.

Jude resisted the urge to look around to see if anyone had seen Zero touch his knee. He decided against pushing Zero’s hand away, which he figured would only make them look even more suspicious. “Thanks,” he said. 

“Nice tie,” Zero added. “Complements your eyes.”

Jude couldn’t keep himself from smiling. “You bought it for me, stupid.”

Zero smiled back, but didn’t take the bait. “I’m glad you wore it. I knew it would look good on you.” He reached out and adjusted the knot of the tie. 

Jude would never tell Zero, but he had spent more time than he would like to admit standing in front of the mirror that morning, internally debating with himself whether or not to wear the tie Zero had given him.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Zero was expecting him to wear it to work, considering he had given it to Jude the day right before his first day at Sportslink, but Jude had been struck by a bizarre bout of paranoia that someone would pick up on the extravagance of the tie, somehow link it to Zero, and then news of their arrangement would end up splashed all over the front of every gossip magazine in Los Angeles. 

But now, seeing the soft look in Zero’s eyes, and feeling his fingers graze over the sensitive skin at his throat, Jude couldn’t bring himself to care about the potential fall out, or push Zero away.

“I need to go for practice,” Zero said after a bit. “See you for dinner tonight?”

“Yeah, sure,” Jude picked up his notebook again, trying not to look too disappointed that Zero was going off so soon.

Jude watched as Zero walked down towards the courts, his eyes lingering on the way the material of Zero’s jersey clung onto his shoulders and back. Then he realized what he was doing, and quickly averted his eyes, feeling the familiar rush of heat to his face even though there wasn’t anyone around to catch him ogling at Zero like a prepubescent teenage girl.

Ugh. He was so screwed.

- 

“I’m pretty sure this isn’t a restaurant,” Jude remarked as Zero walked them to the entrance of what looked like a tailor’s shop. 

“We are going to a restaurant,” Zero said easily. “After we are done here.”

“You need a suit?” Jude frowned as he tried to recall what Zero had told him about his upcoming schedule for the next few weeks. As far as he could remember, all Zero had were his usual practices and a friendly on Friday. Nothing out of the ordinary that would require Zero to dress up and schmooze with the higher ups.

“I don’t,” Zero didn’t look at Jude as he answered, and that was enough to tell Jude all he needed to know.

Jude stopped in his tracks. “Oh no. No. I don’t need a suit either.”

Zero looked at Jude reproachfully, as though Jude was being unreasonable. “I would believe you, but that thing you are wearing right now is telling me otherwise.”

Jude groaned in annoyance. “No, seriously. I have plenty of suits. They might not be the thousand dollar ones you are used to but they fit me and I am _not_ spending more money on new ones.”

“I’ll pay for them,” Zero said easily.

Jude threw up his hands. “That’s not the point.” 

Zero nodded. “Okay. So your point is?” 

“The point is...” Jude’s sentence broke off into a surprised yelp when someone slammed into him from behind. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” The perpetrator in question was a petite woman with long curly red hair.

“Jude?” Zero’s arm was immediately around Jude, his grip firm and comforting. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Jude said gruffly, a little embarrassed at the commotion this had caused. He smiled at the woman, trying to make her feel better. “No harm done.” 

The woman continued on her way, and Zero looked at Jude expectantly. “So, you were going to make a point just now.”

“I can’t remember,” Jude admitted.

Zero rolled his eyes and ushered Jude into the shop.

-

An hour later, Jude was sorely regretting not digging his heels in over the suit issue. He wasn’t even sure how Zero had managed to talk him into this. Zero had a way of getting Jude to agree to things that Jude wouldn’t usually let anyone else get away with. It was both disconcerting and a little alarming.

It had been awkward enough when Zero had strolled into the shop, his hands in his pockets, casting his eyes around the place as though he owned the it. Jude had trailed behind Zero, feeling very much out of place in his own (perfectly respectable and functional) suit and probably looking like Zero’s assistant.

Then Zero had announced his intentions to get Jude fitted for some new suits, and Jude suddenly found himself the center of attention of an overzealous shop assistant and her measuring tape. Jude privately thought that she spent a rather long time measuring his inseams, although he kept quiet about it, not wanting to direct any more attention to himself than there already was.

He did, however, try to protest when the shop owner and Zero started examining swatches of material and it looked like Zero was planning to buy out the whole shop for Jude. “I don’t need five suits,” Jude said weakly. 

“What’s wrong with five? You have one for each day of the week,” Zero turned to look at Jude, a considering gleam in his eyes. “Maybe we should get you a few more. You don’t want to be seen wearing the same thing every week.” 

The threat of Zero possibly splashing even more money on more suits had Jude scurrying with Zero to the cashier, mouth firmly clamped shut in case he said anything else that would give Zero more bright ideas. 

As they headed towards the car park, Jude thought he saw someone in the corner of his eye. The red hair and thigh high boots looked familiar, and Jude frowned to himself when he realized it was the woman who had walked into him earlier.

“Hey, you okay?” Jude was jerked out of his thoughts when he felt a hand on his arm, and he turned to look at Zero.

“Yeah,” Jude said distractedly. It was probably a coincidence. Whoever the woman was, she probably wasn’t anyone important, and Jude knew better than anyone else that he had a penchant for neurotics. 

Jude reached out and gave Zero’s arm a squeeze. “So, what’s for dinner?”


End file.
